EBT Roundhouse

[RPearson]

Glad you like it. I can't say I like the modern paint scheme but its a tourist road now.

Question:

I've got the EBT roundhouse about half done and it occurs to me the stall doors shown on the photos and drawings are modern roll up style. Considering the actual openings have round tops I figure it had a different style of stall doors when originally built. If someone has a photo showing the original style of stall doors I can make two versions. As built and as it is now.

Thanks,

Ben

Ben, short answer is the 8 stall version of the roundhouse that you're making only had the roller doors.

I don't know when the roller doors were added if they in fact weren't original. I think though they go back to well before the time frame your version existed. In fact the roundhouse when it was only 6 stalls had roller doors. This can be seen in a picture in the book,"East Broad Top" by Rainey and Kyper, pg 63. It shows loco no 8 on the turntable with the 6 stall roundhouse behind it. The roller doors are visible in the pic. No 8 was sold in 1913 so the doors definitely date to before that time. [edit: I went back to try and date this pic but the caption only indicated that No 8 was on the new steel turntable. There were 2 steel tables over the years - the present one dating from around 1913 and the one before it which replaced the table that collapsed in 1899. So the pic could be from about 1899 or 1913 - either date could fit the No 8's time at the EBT.] Sorry to defuse your modern roller door theory Ben.

As to when the 8 stall version came about I didn't find a definite date. Sometime between 1894 and 1904 two outside tracks were added to the six stall roundhouse and sometime after 1911 those were closed in to form the present configuration. The survey maps from the Library of Congress which are dated 1917 indicate 8 tracks enclosed.

Bob Pearson

 

[octls2]

Ben, short answer is the 8 stall version of the roundhouse that you're making only had the roller doors.

I don't know when the roller doors were added if they in fact weren't original. I think though they go back to well before the time frame your version existed. In fact the roundhouse when it was only 6 stalls had roller doors. This can be seen in a picture in the book,"East Broad Top" by Rainey and Kyper, pg 63. It shows loco no 8 on the turntable with the 6 stall roundhouse behind it. The roller doors are visible in the pic. No 8 was sold in 1913 so the doors definitely date to before that time.

The Roll-up doors were added around 1917. Info can be found here- http://www.spikesys.com/EBT/Tour/shtunnel.html

As to when the 8 stall version came about I didn't find a definite date. Sometime between 1894 and 1904 two outside tracks were added to the six stall roundhouse and sometime after 1911 those were closed in to form the present configuration. The survey maps from the Library of Congress which are dated 1917 indicate 8 tracks enclosed.

Info on the expansion of the Roundhouse can be found here- http://www.spikesys.com/EBT/Tour/round.htmlhttp://forums.auran.com/trainz/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=889352

 

[RPearson]

I'm a big fan of Chris' site but I have to disagree with the date for the doors. The pic definitely shows both the doors and No 8. So had to be 1913 or earlier.

Here's his write up on the turntable(s) http://www.spikesys.com/EBT/Tour/turnt.html - which agrees more or less with my times and probably dates the pic of No 8 on the "new steel turntable" to around 1913.

Bob Pearson

 

[bendorsey]

OK - roll up doors only but it does seem a bit odd when you consider so many roundhouses with round topped entrances had round topped wooden doors.

Ben

 

[RPearson]

Ben, Thanks for the roundhouse - it's a great addition to the small but growing number of EBT items on the DLS or available anywhere for Trainz. I dl'd it awhile ago but just recently tried to install it on one of my EBT layouts in TS12.

Everything shows up but I had some problems mainly with the attached track locations.

The track arrangement of my EBT route for the shops and yard trackage that I'm working with is pretty accurate - all the track was placed by making a trk file directly from a cad dwg I made using my copies of the 1917 survey maps of the EBT RR. Diminsionally it's pretty accurate. The track in the roundhouse area is the same arrg't as exists today. The whole shop complex is a very tight arrg't and I had a few problems trying to fit the roundhouse into the track layout I have. In fact the attached lead-in track locations don't fit the actual track arrg't.

1st item is the main lead-in track should be aligned with the no 4 stall instead of the no 5 stall. The stalls are numbered from the east side of the building - the side with the shed which currently houses foundry patterns. The HAER-NPS dwg of the floor plan doesn't show the track aligning exactly with stall 4 centerline (it's off about half the track gauge) but the dwg is not correct as shown by this pic that I took a few years ago looking across the turntable when aligned with the lead in track.

2nd item is the length of the attached track segments for the lead and alt leadin tracks. Currently they are 13.643 m. The main leadin track of the prototype includes an ashpit with an end wall at 10.3 m from the turntable pit wall. If the length of the track is reduced to match the end of the ash pit it helps as both lead-in tracks have rather sharp curves leading into them. Reducing the alternate lead-in track length even more (to say 4m) improves the situation substantially. I don't think the floor plan indication of the lead ins is correct in this respect either.

3rd item is the EBT didn't use a lot of concrete in building the roundhouse and turntable. The concrete is limited to the ashpit, turntable pit wall and rail footings, the inspection pits in stalls 1 - 6, wheel drop down pits in stalls 3 & 6 and (maybe) footings for the building sides and columns. In stalls 1 - 6, the width of the concrete pad with the inspection pit is just 6'-9" (2.06m). The roundhouse floor elsewhere and area surrounding the turntable is a dirt/gravel mix. Track in the areas other than the inspection pits and ashpit is rail on wood ties with gravel fill.

For my own use I've changed the lead-in track arrg't and lengths and it works with the actual track arrg't on my route. I've also added in a number of additional attachment points to allow for a different rail outside the roundhouse. I will also have to change the texture on the concrete to a dirt gravel mixture probably by creating a mesh to hide parts of the ground mesh you made.

I would conside the above changes more than just a reskin that you permit in your license agreement. I've modified the pit.im file to make the changes to the attachment point chunk section but I think it would be possible to make all the necessry changes using PEV's tools. Though currently I have no plans to distribute the route when finished if I ever did I'd need permission to distribute the modified roundhouse that fits with it.

Here's my modified arrg't in Surveyor with the lead-in track moved to align with the no 4 stall:

Bob Pearson

 

[rwk]

I started the route, too using a blank DEM from the DLS but didn't get very far, I have several miles of track in, the station, trolley line, roundhouse (substituted a different one) but now the correct version is available, and the trolley line down to Rt. 522. I have the EBT line up to the wye and a few miles past, and the other way toward the Pogue bridge. I did it a few years ago but haven't touched it. There's enough equipment in Trainz to model it, there's one of the 2-8-2 mikes from Ben Neal, plus the covered and uncovered excursion cars on the DLS, regular coaches, and a hopper car. Anything else? It's a shame it closed this year but hopefully it'll reopen. I was never there even though I'm from PA. But, I'm from Allentown and EBT is way beyond Harrisburg and just never got there with other tourist railroads closer to me. I never released mine either but maybe I will if I get it more finished. I don't know if I'm going to do the entire 35 miles or so from Mt. Union to the mines. Most of it is out of service and overgrown for 56 years anyway. I'm modeling the present day as a tourist railroad. Is there a good high detail narrow gauge track out there with modeled ties and rails? I was using a basic low poly track on my route but looking to replace it with better track.